Pop Goes the Market

Late in the summer, All Peoples received an invitation from St. Mark's Episcopal Church to participate in a pop up market in the church yard. We gathered together some pickles we had canned and dried herbs for tea. We picked some greens, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and flowers from our gardens and gathered up some dried sage we had hanging in the greenhouse, and on a misty Saturday morning we set up a table.  Two of our faithful garden volunteers staffed the table and by the end of the morning we had more than $140 in sales.  The proceeds from the sales went back into our Kids Working to Succeed program - supporting the kids who grew the produce.  

This is a great example of churches making good use of their assets and working together.  St. Mark's identified the need for a farmer's market in their church neighborhood.  They gathered together a couple of vendors, and invited All Peoples.  All Peoples is committed to providing free, healthy produce to families in need, and is also seeking sustainable income sources in order to support the work that young people do in the garden.  This was a win-win and fun situation.  And the pickles were the hot-ticket item! 

Pop-up markets are sure to be part of our garden sustainability plan.  If you'd like to invite us over to sell fresh or preserved products, let us know!

Little Mustard Seeds

When a batch of dry weather hits and your mustard greens don't quite get the care they need, you may suddenly end up with a pot or a plot full of pretty yellow flowers and skinny green and red leaves.  At this point, you could cut or pull the plants and start over, or you could change direction and let your plants produce mustard seed.

Sit back and enjoy the flowers for several weeks.  Continue to water until seed pods form and mature.  Then, let the plans dry out a bit.  When the pods are just beginning to split open, it is time to harvest.  Carefully cut the stalks and lay them out on a kitchen towel.  The seeds will start to drop, so be careful to collect them in the towel.  If the stalks are not completely dry, let them sit for a few days before collecting the seed.

Cut the stalks well below the pods

When the pods are ready, they are dry and easily split open

Each pod has a clear membrane in the center, and
the seeds are lined up on each side of the membrane

To collect the seeds, break open each pod, and scrape the seeds off of the membrane with your thumb.  I find it is easiest to do this on a light colored dish towel and then transfer the seeds from the towel to an air-tight container.  As you patiently gather the seeds, you might find yourself pondering the words of Jesus found in Matthew 17:20... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move.

Seed collecting

Pods and stems (compost or add to your freezer
container of vegetable scraps to cook into
vegetable stock -- another blog post)

It takes time to collect a small amount of seed
but this seed is great for pickling, roasting and grinding
or planting in the spring.

Submitted by Linda Muth.

Pickles Pickles Pickles

Submitted by Linda Muth

Well, church work is chaotic, that is for sure.  Suddenly a year has passed by!  During our hiatus from blogging, our gardens have slept through a winter and risen again with great vigor.  It was a warm winter, a cold spring and a rainy summer.  Get ready for photos, recipes and more!!

One of the blessings of our Free Garden Table is that we are able to accept gifts from farmers outside of our urban area and place them onto the table for church families and neighbors to take.  There are some things which do not thrive in our city gardens (such as corn), and so this urban-rural partnership helps us to diversify the fruits and vegetables we have available.







This week we received a huge load of sweet corn, and tucked in the corner of the load was a big shopping bag full of pickling cucumbers.  Some of the neighbors are avid picklers, and it will be fun to see what recipes emerge from this big batch of cukes.  I ended up with a bag full, and decided to conduct a few pickling experiments of my own.







The following recipes are for shelf-stable pickles.  I typically like to can in smaller containers and use some pint jars, and some half-pints.  I use jars that held pickles 50 years ago in my grandma's pantry.  Other jars are recycled or new.  I purchase lids and rims in bulk from Amazon.  When canning, it is important to make sure all of the jars, lids and rims are washed and clean.  I heat the jars in the boiling water which I use later for processing the filled jars.

With each pickle recipe, I pack the whole or sliced cucumbers into the jars, along with whatever herbs and spices I have chosen.  Then I pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and herbs, filling the jars to 1/2 inch below the rim.  Next the lids went on and the rims were screwed into place, but not too tightly.  All of the pickle jars were placed into boiling water and processed for 20 minutes.  The jars rest on a dish towel and the lids go "pop pop pop" as the seals form.  The pickles rest on the counter for 24 hours to be sure the seals are set.

Now the challenge is...not to eat them before the winter!  We will do a little taste testing to figure out how to tweak the recipes.

Pickle Brine
Water, apple cider vinegar, pickling salt.
Use in a ratio of
2 cups of water + 1 cup of vinegar + 1 Tablespoon of pickling salt
Bring to boiling.  Pour into prepared pickle jars.

Whole Baby Dill Pickles #1
Place 1 large or 2 small dill flower heads (plus stems) into pint jars.
Add 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
Pack cleaned whole baby cucumbers loosely into the jar.
Fill with brine and process.

Whole Baby Dill Pickles #2
Place 1 or 2 small dill flower heads (plus stems) into pint jars.
Add 1-2 cloves of garlic
Add 1 full teaspoon pickling spice
Pack cleaned whole baby cucumbers loosely into the jar.
Fill with brine and process.

Whole Baby Dill Pickles #3
Place 1 or 2 small dill flower heads (plus stems) into pint jars.
Add 1/4 to 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or part of a dried hot pepper
Add 1 full teaspoon pickling spice
Pack cleaned whole baby cucumbers loosely into the jar.
Fill with brine and process.

Sliced Garlic Chive Pickles
Slice the clean baby cucumbers into 1/4" slices
Pack into 1/2 pint jars
Add 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
Add a little bundle of snipped garlic chives
Fill with brine and process.

Sliced Bread and Butter Pickles
Slice the clean baby cucumbers into 1/4" slices
Pack into 1/2 pint jars
Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon pickling spice
Fill with brine and process.

I use Penzeys pickling spice.  And I grow my own herbs.